AUTHOR ARCHIVES

Jonathan Marino

May 3, 2006
The House Homeland Security Committee abruptly called off a Wednesday afternoon briefing at which the panel was expected to announce a bipartisan consensus on how to best restructure the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Committee member Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., said directions to cancel the briefing came "from Democratic leadership," and...

May 1, 2006
The Transportation Security Administration has not completed performance standards for its private screeners, the Government Accountability Office said in a report issued Monday. Only after the agency establishes criteria by which the Homeland Security Department can judge screeners will it be possible to hold individual airports responsible for negligence by...

May 1, 2006
The Defense Security Service's decision to stop advancing security clearance applications until funding issues are resolved will likely add to the increasing value of job applicants who have already passed the process, an industry official said Monday. "There's no question there's already a premium in the market for that," said...

April 28, 2006
The release of yet another report condemning Hurricane Katrina failures has Federal Emergency Management Agency employees saying they just want to push forward for the upcoming hurricane season - and do so independently. FEMA workers, the union representing them and a former director are most concerned with seeing the agency...

April 27, 2006
A Senate committee on Thursday released portions of a report calling for the dismantling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and creation of a new agency within the Homeland Security Department to take its place. The panel also recommended that DHS consider training an unspecified number of employees outside of...

April 26, 2006
Homeland Security Department agencies have staffs that are too small and too burdened with enforcing immigration policy and investigating terrorism to effectively confront the growing counterfeit goods market, lawmakers and private sector officials said Wednesday. The multibillion-dollar industry, which produces fakes ranging from high-end designer handbags to the commonplace surge...

April 25, 2006
The head of the Homeland Security Department's visitor tracking program on Tuesday called for the creation of a "global ID management system" to make travel easier while enhancing security. Jim Williams, director of the US VISIT program within DHS, told attendees of the National Business Travel Association's annual meeting he...

April 24, 2006
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency last week announced a series of changes aimed at enhancing its capabilities to find and oust illegal immigrants from the United States. However, the announcement was sparse on details about how many staff members and how much funding would be necessary. ICE's announcement came...

April 21, 2006
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's recently arrived acquisitions chief is backing an agency program to recruit workers for two- to four-year stints as the hurricane season looms. Thousands of Cadre on-Response Employees, or CORE workers, are being brought in as the agency continues to provide relief to victims of hurricanes...

April 19, 2006
The refusal of Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte to cooperate with a Government Accountability Office review of dozens of agencies' information sharing efforts is causing a stir on Capitol Hill. Negroponte's lack of cooperation was one of the issues addressed by GAO in a report issued Monday on how...